I met with leaders of Jewish communities from all over the world on Monday. They all had the same complaint, but they said it in different accents and varying levels of tiredness.
They are tired of slogans. They want the truth.
We met at the Foreign Ministry, and there, this group of leaders shared that they want a reliable source of quick, accurate information in their language, or at least in English. And they want information that they can trust enough to repeat on live TV, to a school board, to a local mayor, or to a reporter who calls five minutes before airtime. They are frustrated because they have to respond to claims and clips that spread faster than any official explanation.
I felt the same way. I have also seen how quickly credible journalism can change the story outside of Israel. A short news update - carefully written and quickly published - can change a presumption before it morphs into a headline. A story that is reliable enough to be shared worldwide can turn a rumor into fact and an accusation into a verified detail. They do this not by winning arguments on social media, but by altering the perceptions of editors, lawmakers, and ordinary people.
That’s why I told a high-ranking officer in the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit something that shouldn’t be controversial, but still is: putting Israeli media first is a huge mistake.
It is important for Israelis to receive news from Israel. But it doesn’t always change how the world talks about Israel. Other countries, languages, and political pressures shape the creation of international stories. The Jerusalem Post doesn’t try to get the same readers as Israeli news sites. Most of the people who read our content are not from Israel. Our work has the potential to enhance Israel’s reputation, and the dissemination of information to the diaspora is crucial.
Civilian diplomacy shadowed by military spokespeople
And here’s the structural problem that Israel won’t admit: since October 7, the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit has been the only public diplomacy operation that has worked consistently. For many people around the world, Former IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari became Israel’s best-known voice. The IDF selected Brig.-Gen. Effie Defrin to succeed him in March 2025.
No matter what you think of individual spokespeople, the precedent that is being set is frightening. Israel starts to look like a country that talks via its military when its only credible voice wears a uniform. Military briefings are needed during wartime. In a democracy, they should never be the primary method through which people from other countries learn about a society.
Israel is more than just its army. Israel’s people, institutions, internal debates, humanitarian problems, new ideas, variety, and culture mold its shape. A uniform can help explain an operation. It can’t explain a country.
So what else is there?
Israel needs a civilian public diplomacy reserve.
Not a government substitute or a WhatsApp group of volunteers that fills up timelines. A real system: trained, checked, and multilingual civilians who can work with discipline, accuracy, and trustworthiness. A group that builds relationships with journalists, editors, campus leaders, and civic institutions all year long, not just during wars.
Take a look around if this seems impossible. Democracies that are under constant stress have trained civilians to protect their information space.
Lithuania’s “Elves” is a group of volunteers who work together to fight false information and propaganda. People have said that Estonia’s Propastop is connected to the Defense League ecosystem and run by volunteers. Taiwan’s Cofacts, made by the g0v civic-tech community, helps people and families check the facts on viral claims - which includes messaging apps, where misinformation spreads fastest.
Other countries have taken it a step further by making resilience part of their society. The Psychological Defence Agency in Sweden makes it clear that “psychological defense” is a collective effort among the government, civil society, and citizens to counteract harmful information. The National Defence Training Association of Finland (MPK) is an example of how a semi-independent organization can train many reservists and civilians in a structured manner. France’s “réserve citoyenne” models see civilians as ambassadors who can help with national missions without being soldiers.
Israel can change what works and avoid what doesn’t. The UK’s 77th Brigade shows both the risks and the abilities of anything that is seen as military “information operations.” Israel doesn’t need another building that makes people suspicious; it requires an organization built to gain trust.
This means that a civilian reserve must be based on putting the truth first. It must have transparent sourcing, and it cannot include fake identities, nor campaigning for political offices, nor details about military operations. Being open and honest is not just a way to demonstrate your morals. This is the only way it can work.
The model is easy to understand in practice.
A small group of professionals is responsible for training, checking, and coordinating. Around it is a list of language desks, each staffed by people who know both the language and their associated culture. The reserve makes quick “fact packs” that include citations, explanations for specific markets, and regular briefings. It keeps a database of important media contacts and measures success by trust and access, not by clicks.
It goes up in a crisis. Not by sending out panic messages on the fly, but by using relationships that have been built over months and years.
The leaders of the diaspora I talked to on Monday don’t want Israel to be perfect. They want Israel to be there, make sense, and move quickly enough to be helpful. When things get tough, they want a steady stream of reliable information that they can trust.
Israel has the skills and thousands of individuals, including both olim and other talented people, who speak hundreds of languages. What Israel is lacking is a structure.
The IDF will keep doing what only it can do. But Israel needs civilians to do what only civilians can do: explain Israel in a believable and approachable way, and without donning a uniform.
I’m not floating this as a theory. I’m willing to volunteer, and I know a few dozen others with media experience - people who speak French, Spanish, German, Russian, Arabic, and more, who would happily give a few weeks a year to do this work for Israel, in the languages that actually shape global coverage.